Same Sex Relationships

Freedom of sexuality and gender identity are fundamental human rights.

People who define their social, cultural and political identities according to their sexuality, sex and gender exist in every human society. However, some societies, including contemporary Australia, establish heterosexuality as the most valid form of sexuality and reinforce rigid male/female gender stereotypes. This devalues and marginalises lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex people and people with intersex conditions (LGBTI people) and assigns them to an inferior social, cultural and political status.

The Australian Greens believe that the acceptance and celebration of diversity, including sexuality and gender diversity, is essential for genuine social justice and equality.

LGBTI people are an important, valuable part of this diversity and Australia must cherish their significant contributions.

The Australian Greens support the right of all people to assume their self-identified sex and gender, make fully informed choices about their lives and access appropriate medical intervention if required.

LGBTI Australians, especially youth, have always struggled against discrimination and prejudice and for recognition, equality, acceptance, dignity, emancipation and self-determination. The Australian Greens uphold and defend the dignity and humanity of LGBTI people and acknowledge and support that struggle.

The Australian Greens recognise the diversity within the LGBTI communities and specialised needs of groups within those communities.

The Australian Greens also acknowledge the activism of LGBTI people in other human rights campaigns, including the feminist and Indigenous movements.

Goals
The Australian Greens will work to:

1. actively enhance the status of LGBTI people at all times and will speak out at every opportunity against prejudice, fear and hatred of LGBTI people;
   
   
2. end harassment, abuse, vilification, stigmatisation, discrimination, disadvantage or exploitation because a person is LGBTI or perceived to be;
   
   
3. improve and broaden the police and prison services’ knowledge of and sensitivity towards LGBTI issues and further develop liaison between the services and LGBTI communities;
   
   
4. eliminate the violence experienced by LGBTI people in the community and in prisons, including domestic violence;
   
   
5. establish intersex as a legally recognised sex that can be chosen by intersex people and people with intersex conditions;
   
   
6. enable individuals to live as their self-identified sex and gender;
   
   
7. legalise marriage and de facto relationships between two people irrespective of their sex and gender identity and achieve the equal treatment of all such relationships in law and government policy;
   
   
8. ensure equal access for LGBTI people to adoption, fostering, artificial insemination and in vitro fertilisation procedures;
   
   
9. equalise the ages of consent for sexual activity regardless of the participants’ sex or sexuality;
   
   
10. remove all other discrimination against LGBTI people in criminal law and the legal system;
    
    
11. eradicate workplace discrimination against LGBTI people;
    
    
12. develop an inclusive society that supports LGBTI youth by providing focussed information, services and support networks for youth;
    
    
13. deliver well-funded, specialised LGBTI community-based health and welfare services;
    
    
14. expand LGBTI cultural and community events and the recognition of and support for LGBTI tourism;
    
    
15. create an environment that will lead to more LGBTI people in The Greens, other political parties, Parliaments, local government and participating in consultation and decision making in our society in general;
    
    
16. provide adequate funding for support groups, rights groups and representative groups for each of the LGBTI communities;
    
    
17. provide adequate funding for research into LGBTI cultural, community, social, health, welfare and safety issues;
    
    
18. actively support the granting of political asylum on humanitarian grounds to LGBTI people who are persecuted within their own countries on the basis of their sexuality, sex or gender identity; and
    
    
19. ensure that the needs and circumstances of LGBTI people within disadvantaged groups, including women, young people, Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders, people of non-English speaking backgrounds, people with disabilities, the aged, people in rural and remote areas and people in prison, are addressed.

1. the enactment of Federal sexuality, sex and gender identity anti-discrimination legislation that prohibits all forms of discrimination against LGBTI people;
   
   
2. defending existing State LGBTI anti-discrimination and anti-vilification legislation and extending it to ensure that it covers all LGBTI people and is enforced;
   
   
3. repealing existing laws or practices in Australia which discriminate against LGBTI people in any area including employment, accommodation, the provision of goods and services, education, health care, family law, legal status, compensation, superannuation, pensions, immigration and law enforcement;
   
   
4. initiating education programmes to inform the community about LGBTI people and to counter discrimination, in close cooperation with LGBTI communities;
   
   
5. the elimination of sexuality, sex and gender identity discrimination and harassment in the Australian Defence Forces through the education of all service personnel, the adoption of an anti-harassment policy related to sexuality and gender diversity and the establishment of grievance mechanisms for LGBTI service personnel; and
   
   
6. a foreign policy which takes the lead in advocating at a bilateral and multilateral level for the elimination of sexuality, sex and gender identity discrimination and persecution in all countries.